William Howard, 8th Earl of Wicklow

Who was William Howard, 8th Earl of Wicklow?

William Cecil James Philip John Paul Howard, 8th Earl of Wicklow, styled Viscount Clonmore until 1946, was an Irish peer.

He was the only child of Ralph Howard, 7th Earl of Wicklow and the Countess of Wicklow, formerly Lady Gladys Mary Hamilton. His maternal grandparents were the 2nd Duke of Abercorn and Lady Mary Anna Curzon-Howe.

He was known as Viscount Clonmore until succeeding to the Earldom in 1946.

He was first educated at Wixenford, from where he passed the examination to enter the Royal Naval College, Osborne, in May 1916. However, in the event he proceeded to Eton College before Magdalen College, Oxford, and St Stephen's House, Oxford. He was then ordained a deacon and priest of the Church of England. Among his Oxford associates were Glyn Simon, Evelyn Waugh, and John Betjeman. He worked for the Magdalen Mission in Somers Town. Having been a zealous Anglo-Catholic, he converted to Roman Catholicism in 1932, and thereafter lived as a layman. He was disinherited by his father and banished from the family seat in Ireland on Sundays because he was thought to be an embarrassment on account of his attending Mass with the servants, who were also Roman Catholics. During the Second World War he was commissioned into the Royal Fusiliers and rose to the rank of Captain.